A quick visit to Petounta Point this morning before the Bank Holiday picnickers descended on the area. Migrants seen were two Hoopoe, a male Northern Wheatear, an Isabelline Wheatear, four Green Sandpiper, two Little Ringed Plover, two male Black-headed Wagtail and a male Blue-headed Wagtail. There is still a Reed Bunting in the area as well as plenty of Meadow Pipit, at least four Common Snipe, a Water Rail, up to three calling Black Francolin, overwintering Chaffinch and two Eurasian Skylark. A small group of migrating gulls offshore turned out to be Common Black-headed Gull.

Black-headed Wagtail Petounta 3rd March 2014 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours

Little Ringed Plover Petounta 3rd March 2014 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours

Northern Wheatear Petounta 3rd March 2014 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours

After checking in on the Steppe Grey Shrike at Pervolia, I made a quick visit to Petounta. Found my first Hoopoe of the spring there as well as two Gadwall and three Kentish Plover on the shore and a single Reed Bunting. There were also many Meadow Pipit, Eurasian Skylark, singing Corn Bunting and a calling Black Francolin.

Eurasian Hoopoe Petounta Point February 18th 2014 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours

As with last month the largest numbers of birds were ducks at the Sewage Works – over 1300 Northern Shoveler and nearly the same number of Common Teal were there. There were also a few Common Shelduck there as well as two Gadwall, a Northern Pintail, five Wigeon and a Ferruginous Duck. There were at least fifteen Black-necked Grebe and over two hundred Little Grebe as well as 350 Coot and nearly a hundred Black-headed Gull. There was a Black-winged Stilt and a Common Redshank on the Sewage Pools and in the fields there were over forty Northern Lapwing and six Ruff.

There were more than four hundred Golden Plover on Larnaca Airport Pools South and I also found three Eurasian Stone Curlew. Twelve of the Greater White-fronted Geese and the Greylag Goose were in the fields there while the thirteenth Greater White-fronted was on the Sewage Pools to where the others returned during the morning. On the offshore buoys I could count six Sandwich Tern and there were two Marsh Harrier and a Hen Harrier quartering the area.

There were only just over 300 Greater Flamingo on the main Salt Lake and they were all collected in the north-east corner. There were around 850 Common Shelduck as well as over 500 Black-headed Gull (with a lone immature Mediterranean Gull in with them) on the lake. Most of the birds were also in the north-eastern area – Dunlin, Kentish Plover, Little Stint, Common Ringed Plover, Common Redshank, a Grey Heron, a Common Snipe and around sixty Common Teal. I found a couple of Water Pipit and saw four Reed Bunting in one area and heard two others elsewhere. Another Marsh Harrier was also hunting in the area.

I then visited Kiti Dam for the Waterbird Count – it has some water but no waterbirds. I returned to Larnaca Airport Pools South in the late afternoon and by then there were at least 28 Armenian Gull, twenty Caspian Gull and two Heuglin’s Gull (Lesser Black-backed Gull). The Heuglin’s Gull may have been the same two that had been seen by other birders on the main Salt Lake on Sunday afternoon.

Stone Curlew Larnaca 15th January 2014 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours

Kiti Dam January 15th 2014 (C) Cyprus Birding Tours

While I was checking the gulls on Larnaca Airport Pools South today an adult Great Black-headed Gull flew in and joined the Armenian, Caspian and Yellow-legged Gull there. It didn’t stay long as on my way out of the area it was no longer present and I didn’t find it at the Salt Lake either. There were also over 300 Golden Plover which later moved to Spiros Pool and a single Eurasian Curlew. The Greylag Goose that was found at the Sewage Pools just before Christmas was still present and as well as seven Ruddy Shelduck, nine Black-necked Grebe, thirteen Greater White-fronted Geese, five Eurasian Wigeon, seven Northern Pintail, well over a thousand Northern Shoveler and at least seven hundred Teal. There were also four Black-winged Stilt, a couple of Common Redshank and a Marsh Harrier which kept putting the birds up as it flew over. On the causeway between the two pools there was a first winter Mediterranean Gull. Twelve Northern Lapwing were on the fields together with some Eurasian Skylark and a mixed flock of House and Spanish Sparrow.

With some water now on the main Salt Lake there are around 1000 Greater Flamingo now present as well as over 600 Common Shelduck and hundreds of Common Black-headed Gull. Near the Tekke Mosque there were flocks of Linnet, Goldfinch and Corn Bunting as well as Spectacled and Sardinian Warbler. The Little Owl was also in its usual location. On the eastern side I found at least six Reed Bunting in a stand of reeds near to the hide there and on the mud there were several Common Ringed Plover, a Dunlin, many Little Stint and Kentish Plover and others too distant to identify.

Reed Bunting Larnaca Salt Lake January 2nd 2014 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours

Finally I was able to get out birding today even if mainly to do the waterbird count around Larnaca. What a difference from last December though. Then there were around 7000 Greater Flamingo on the Larnaca Salt Lake but the low rainfall of the last few months meant there is very little water in the Lake yet and I found a only three young birds at the Sewage Works – although at Akrotiri Salt Lake there are currently around 11000 as that has had water in all year. There were around 1300 Northern Shoveler and 730 Common Teal as well as nearly 200 Mallard and plenty of Common Coot and Little Grebe on the Sewage Works Pools. There are thirteen Greater White Fronted Geese and twelve Black-necked Grebe. The only other duck species I found was a single Northern Pintail. Plenty of Black-headed Gull but only one juvenile Caspian Gull.

There were a lot of Eurasian Skylark, Meadow Pipit and some Red-throated Pipit around and at least 160 Golden Plover on Spiros Pool. On the main Salt Lake there were just under 400 Common Shelduck and some Kentish Plover, Little Stint and Dunlin as well as Black-headed Gull and three Armenian Gull. A flock of fifty Northern Lapwing flew over and a Marsh Harrier and Common Buzzard were hunting in the area. In the reeds I found four Reed Bunting as well as Chiffchaff, Linnet, Corn Bunting, Chaffinch, Song Thrush Cetti’s Warbler, Robin and Stonechat.

I continued to Petounta Point where I spent a long time watching both a Jack Snipe and a Water Rail that were out in the open. Also there were five Common Snipe, a Temminck’s Stint, a Common Sandpiper, some Common Teal, nine Common Starling, plenty of Meadow Pipit and White Wagtail, and a Marsh Harrier which was perched in the reeds as I arrived.

Jack Snipe Petounta 16th December 2013 (c) Cyprus Birding Tours